The St Michaels Saints varsity baseball team traveled to Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, Maryland on Wednesday, to take on the Parkside Rams in the Bayside Conference Championship.

The last time the Saints won the Bayside Championship was 2001.  Zach Correa was the pitcher for the Saints and did an outstanding job as the Saints won the game by a score of 14 to 1.

The Saints scored 12 runs in the third inning and never looked back.  The slaughter rule was applied in the fifth inning just as the rain that had been threatening all afternoon started to fall.

The Saints played well at each position and supported Correa on both offense and defense.   St Michaels had seven hits in the third inning and went 8 for 17 against Kyle Skilling the Rams leads off pitcher.

St Michaels (19-2), the #1 seed in the Class 1A East Playoffs, are off until Monday the 13th when they plan the winner of the Snow Hill (#9) and North Dorchester (#8) game on Friday night.   The Saints are     3-0 against those teams this year.

Put on your RED Jersey and come on out to Baines Field on Monday at 4PM to cheer the Saints on to victory in the Quarter Final East Region playoff game.

The St. Michaels Saints Varsity Baseball Team just keeps on winning.  Their record is now 16 and one.  With a close victory over Colonel Richardson Thursday afternoon, the Saints secured the #1 seed for the East Regional Playoffs.  The Saints previously won the North Bayside Championship and will play the South Bayside Champion (yet to be determined) on Wednesday May 8^th at Shorebirds stadium.  The scheduled start time is 6PM.

The Saints Junior Varsity team will play their last home game of the regular season Thursday night at Home.  The Varsity will play on Friday at 4 PM and again on Monday at 2:30 PM.  The reason for the 2:30 start time is a Bayside Division awards banquet scheduled for late Monday evening.

The Saints Senior night will be held this Friday with 6 senior baseball players and one senior softball player and 8 senior tennis players.  It is the tradition here at St Michaels that the graduating senior will present a bouquet of Roses (Supplied by the Sports Boosters) to his or Her Mom or Dad as thanks for their support during the sports season.  The announcer (Yours Truly) will read a short biography of the senior which is written by the senior and can at times be very humorous.  With the help of the Sports Booster Officers, Lu Ann McKelvey and Pam Phillips, we strive to ensure no one is offended by the creative writing of some of the senior students.

The Regional Playoff games will commence on Monday May 13 with the quarter final game.  The Saints have home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  If we win on Monday, we will play the semi-final game on Wednesday May 15, and the Regional Final game will be held on Friday May 17.  This is all weather permitting.

We look forward to a number of exciting baseball games this week and next.  Come on out to Baines field and catch a game.

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE – GO SAINTS – HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE

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The Saints varsity baseball team improved their record to 14-1 overall and 12-0 in the North Bayside Division, with a 9 to 3 win over the North Caroline Bulldogs on Tuesday night.  Pitcher Zach Correa had another outstanding game with 11 strike outs and only allowed three hits.

It has been reported that Zach Correa has signed a letter of intent to join his brother at Chesapeake College.

Zach Howeth, the Saints starting catcher, has also signed a letter of intent to play at Chesapeake.  With Correa on the mound and Howeth behind the plate, the battery will stay charged for the rest of the season.  Not only is Howeth an outstanding catcher but his batting average is just a hair short of 600.  On Tuesday Howeth went 5 for 5 at the plate and accounted for three of the 9 runs it took to beat the Bulldogs.

One more win by the Saints and they will be in the Bayside Conference Championship game.  When I spoke to Brian Femi the Saints Head Coach prior to the first game of the season, he stated, the teams goal was to continue the Saints streak of winning the Maryland State 1A East Region title.  The streak to date is five and the Saints have their eyes on making it six.

As I sit in the Saints Press Box (a fold-up table near the third base line fence) at every home game and look out at the outfield fence, I am amazed at how impressive it looks with the number of Bayside Conference, East Region and State Championship banners I see.   Wouldn’t it be nice if we could add three more this year? GO SAINTS

The next Varsity home game is Monday April 29^th at 4 PM.

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE

St Michaels High School has pulled the tarps off the fields and unlocked the gates to the tennis courts.  Spring training has finally begun.

There are some new faces and veterans on the coaching staff this year.

Brian Femi, the Head Varsity Baseball Coach will lead the charge to win the Region Pennant for the sixth year in a row.   Helping Brian with the 14 students selected for the 2013 squad are Assistant Coaches Bill Burton, Kevin Wile, Greg Phillips and Mitch Green (SMHS 2008).

Jon Grow is returning as the Head Junior Varsity Baseball coach with assistance from James Baynard and Mike Turner a 2009 graduate from SMHS.  The JV Squad is made up of 16 highly talented players. The team includes 7 Freshman, 4 Sophomores and 5 Juniors and is considered a young team with a lot of potential.

Sean Smith (SMHS 1998) is the new Head Coach of the Saints Varsity Softball Team.  If my count is correct, Coach Smith has the challenge of molding 13 players in to a winning team for 2013.  Smith has Robin Werner and Dave Fisher as assistant coaches.

Liz Chroniger (SMHS 2009) is the new head coach of the Junior Varsity Softball team. There are 10 young ladies eager to show the Varsity that that they are ready for this season.  This is a very young team with 7 of the 10 players coming from the Freshman Class.  Liz has her hands full and Dave Fisher will be doing double duty assisting both the Varsity and JV squads.

St Michaels Tennis has a new coach by the name of Joe Brannagan.  Joe is not new to coaching.  I understand that Joe helped coach the 1937 Washington Redskins to their Championship season.  Joe has plenty of talent on his Girls and Boys teams.  There are 10 Girls and 14 Boys ready to swing their rackets in support of Saints Tennis.  The combined teams are heavy with juniors (9), lite on freshman (5) and only (5) seniors.  The rest are sophomores.  Joe is such a good coach that he has no assistants.

Rounding out the support staff for the Spring Sports are KC Zomer, the Athletic Trainer, Yours Truly (George Dabrowski) as the Announcer and the ever present President of the Sports Boosters Lu Ann  McKelvey and Treasurer Pam Phillips in the snack bar.  On occasion we will see Principal Helga Einhorn and/or Assistant Principal, Teresa Vener monitoring the student activity in the stands.

Good Luck Saints as we commence the 2013 spring sports season.

By George Dabrowski

The St Michaels High School Girls and Boys varsity basketball season ended last week when both teams lost in the first round of the Maryland State 1A playoff.  It was a very difficult season for both teams as they finished with a perfect record, no wins and 15 losses.

The bright side is that both teams showed a great deal of improvement as the season progressed.  Two rookie Coaches did their best to teach the basics and at the same time establish a foundation from which to grow on.  Mike Turner, the Girls Coach, had his hands full with a young and inexperienced team (only two seniors).

Matt Sheridan, the Boys coach, brought a lot of experience to the court but soon realized the numbers game when transferring from a 111A school to a 1A school.  The biggest problem for both teams is we just don’t have the numbers to compete with the bigger schools.  The Boys team, like the Girls team had only two seniors, both very young teams.

I take my hat off to both Mike Turner and Matt Sheridan.  They kept a positive attitude and encouraged their players to do their best under very difficult conditions.

Constructing a foundation for future years has begun.  Building a basketball dynasty may take some time but both Mike & Matt have the desire to make it happen right here in downtown St Michaels.    GO SAINTS

The St Michaels High School basketball teams had a long break over the Christmas Holidays.  Both the boys and girls varsity teams returned to the court in good spirits and fully rested.  Unfortunately, the rest period did not help the Saints as they continued their losing streak adding four more losses to their winless season.

On January third the Saints hosted the North Dorchester Eagles.  The girls lost 34 to 13 and the boys lost 70 to 28.

On January seventh, the Saints hosted Colonial Richardson High School and the girls lost 58 to 13 and the boys lost 76 to 39.

On January eighth, The Saints traveled to Kent Island High School to take on the Buccaneers.  Once again the girls lost 94 to 2 and the boys lost by a little more respectable score of 66 to 31.

On January tenth, the Saints had home court advantage verses the Kent County Trojans.  The home court didn’t help much as the girls lost 79 to 9 and the boys lost 82 to 43.

Next Tuesday, January 15, the cross county rivals come to St Michaels to challenge the Saints.  The Easton Warriors are leading the North Bayside Division with the boys varsity sporting a 11 and 0 record and the girls varsity sitting in third place with a six win and three loss record.

A quick look at the schedule indicates that we are at the halfway point with nine games left to play.  There are four home games remaining and I encourage all Saints fans to come to the games and cheer on the home team.